Monday, October 8, 2018

September 25, 2018 - "The Libertarian Party of Ohio has filed a complaint with the Ohio Elections Commission over being excluded from three gubernatorial debates, including the first one held last week at the University of Dayton [UD] between Democrat Richard Cordray and Republican Mike DeWine.

"The 23-page complaint alleges that the university and the DeWine and Cordray campaigns excluded other qualified gubernatorial candidates from planning and participating in the debate.

"'No pre-existing objective criteria -- other than the participants being Richard Cordray and Mike DeWine -- were published, documented or in any way made available to the public, the press, the two minor political parties, or the two minor political parties' qualified gubernatorial candidates,' the complaint says.

"Libertarian Party of Ohio nominee Travis Irvine and Ohio Green Party nominee Constance Gadell Newton will also appear on the statewide ballot as candidates for governor.

"Two other debates between Cordray and DeWine [were held] Oct. 1 at Marietta College and Oct. 7 at Cleveland State University.

"The Libertarian Party's complaint alleges that hosting the Sept. 19 debate amounted to an illegal campaign contribution to DeWine and Cordray from UD.

"A university spokesperson said the week before the debate that it had set a 10-percent polling requirement for candidates to participate in the debate. The Libertarian complaint said there is no evidence they have seen that the criteria was set before the debate was announced....

"The Ohio Elections Commission is expected to give the complaint a preliminary review at its Nov. 1 meeting."